Getty Michael Brockers gives the thumbs up as he leaves the field.
The Detroit Lions had a rough season in 2021, but as always, that notion does little to slow down the positive feelings that come with every single offseason.
In spite of the way the Lions struggled most of the season, there is still an undercurrent of optimism with regards to the team in the future. That’s true not only with the fanbase, but with the former players as well. One such player has offered that kind of take in Michael Brockers.
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Prior to the Super Bowl, Brockers sat down with Jim Rome on The Jim Rome Show and offered his take on where his team is heading after one season. As Brockers explained, he thinks the Lions were able to lay a solid enough foundation in 2021 where they can contend for the postseason in 2022. In fact, he thinks the team has a chance to do just that.
“Definitely, if you think about our season, we lost by a 66 yard field goal that bounced in. We were in that Ravens game. We were in a lot of games where we lost in game situations, two minute situations where the young guys hadn’t seen those situations before,” Brockers told Rome. “So now they’ve been through them, we can show tape of those situations. We can learn from them and I just think we’ll be a better team from those losses.”
As for why, Brockers thinks that the young Lions players will be able to grow given all th situations they saw. Brockers told Rome that he sensed a change in how things were being handled by the team as the season went on that mimicked the transformation of another team he was on.
“We were happy about the moment but it felt like it wasn’t done. That’s the same feel I kind of got with that 4-12 season the first year I got in Los Angeles,” Brockers said. “Man, we’re just so much better than we are now. You go through all that adversity to get to some point. I feel like our point, it wasn’t last year but we had a lot of learning lessons throughout that year. A lot of young guys learned lessons. We’re going to be leaning on a lot of those same young guys from last year (during) this year. And we hope to be better this year.”
That’s a hope that many Lions fans share, but to hear that some players believe it to be expectation is good news early in the offseason.
Why Lions Can Make Push for 2022 Playoffs
Though it might seem comical to some now, the Lions can certainly make a push for the playoffs next year as Brockers expects. Detroit will play a last place schedule next season by virtue of the way they finished 2021, which means tangling with the last place teams in NFC divisions. Beyond that, the team plays the AFC and NFC East divisions on the schedule for 2022.
This would mean that the Lions would play the likes of Dallas, Washington, Philadelphia and the New York Giants while tangling with Miami, the New York Jets, New England and Buffalo in their AFC crossovers. While it’s certainly a tough crossover to have, anything can always happen in a given year with regards to teams and players as well as ever-changing dynamics.
Lots will depend on the kind of fixes the team can make in the offseason and in the draft to the roster but the Lions will have a chance of going worst-to-first if they can get things organized in time. In Dan Campbell, the team has a coach that the team can rally behind for the future that is laying
Brockers Has Complicated Future With Lions
Perhaps a bigger issue for the Lions will be sorting out whether or not Brockers sticks long-term. Last year, he put up 52 combined tackles and 1.0 sack for the team. Those numbers were far off what he had accomplished with the Rams. Brockers carries a sizable $11.9 million dollar cap hit with just $1.9 million in dead cap penalties if cut, making him one of the most appetizing potential roster removals from a numbers standpoint given there would be a little penalty for the move.
Brockers had put up 395 total tackles, 28.0 sacks, 9 passes defended and 2 forced fumbles in his career in Los Angeles, and the team was hoping that they would see a bit more production. Cutting Brockers would save Detroit money, but may come at the expense of leadership and a key veteran voice, especially if the team moves on from Trey Flowers as many expect.
Regardless of what happens with Brockers, the Lions could be in good shape for the future. That much is true when thinking about things with a 2022 lens.
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